Rating: 
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Plot: The story of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj’s Burhanpur raid to save the residents from the Mughal’s unjust rule.
Writer and Director – Digpal Lanjekar
Music – Devdutta Baji
Cast: Bhushan Patil, Mrunal Kulkarni, Chinmay Mandlekar
Shivrayancha Chhava: Marathi Movie Review
Digpal Lanjekar’s Shivashtak has been a hit and miss with both the critics and the audiences so far. Taking a break from that series, Digpal has taken his love for historic films forward with Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharajas stories. Shivrayancha Chhava is the first installment of this series.
The film starts with the coronation of the second Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire i.e Sambhaji Maharaj. Unfortunately Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj has passed away and the whole of the Maratha Empire is shaken by his demise. Every enemy out there is now looking at attacking the Maratha empire before they can get their control back. But destiny has other plans. Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj has taken up the mantle of fulfilling Shivaji Maharaj’s dream of expanding the Maratha Empire right from Peshawar to Thanjavur.
The Mughals won’t back down from knocking the door’s of Deccan time and again. One such thorn was Bahadur Khan of Burhanpur. He was the one responsible for collecting Jizya Tax from the non muslims in the city. The story continues with Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj’s plan to raid the city and take back control.
It is a huge disservice to such great stories of valour. All these films have become nothing but a part of business nowadays. The only film worth remembering so far has been Pawankhind. Mediocre writing, sloppy narratives and poor VFX have been a common problem in all the films. But still one thing that worked was the music. This time around not even one song is worth remembering and the background music is really poor.
Casting Bhushan Patil as Sambhaji Maharaj was always going to be a big risk. And it has not given any positive returns. Except for the physique, he lacks the glow and confidence required for the character. All other supporting cast are just average. Nobody manages to stand out. The poor Hindi accents of the background actors are laughable.
The writing is so basic that it feels like a 145 minute infomercial YouTube video where things happen only after the narration. The film is stretched beyond limits but the snippets of Sambhaji Maharaj and Shivaji Maharaj from the past are something that work really well. The cinematography is nothing out of the box. The 5-7 minute introduction of characters in the start is one of the laziest writings I have seen in Digpal’s films so far.
Having high hopes from such historic films is a crime in itself. Not rushing to release 2 of these every year may reduce the “historicals” fatigue. All in all, Shivrayancha Chhava is a passable flick with little to no emotional impact and an absolutely bland narrative.
